When A Whole Other World Knows Your Future
by Julius Peabody
Summary: Au. The young Marauders accidentally find themselves in a new world, our world, where everything they've known isn't real and their futures are told in a popular children's series...
1. Something Is Eluding Them

(Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, places, things, or whatever else happens to be in those books that I use. –Sigh- These things so annoy me. Now stop reading this stupid disclaimer and read the fic! Jeez…)

The early light of the moon danced lazily over the hectic brush of the forest, and the wind stirred the creaking branches of the monstrous trees that stood side by side, their limbs outstretched and tangled together. The wind and the light of the moon helped make the chilling, eerie atmosphere that always seemed to surround the forest even more foreboding, almost as if all of nature knew that it needed to scare off trespassers tonight. But three trespassers where too brazen to be scared off by howling wind and creaking trees, and the forest seemed to calm as they passed, knowing it was no use trying to scare them. The forest knew them and they knew the forest.

The wind either did not know them or did not care for them, for it trailed slowly behind them, waiting to pounce on them with its frigid hands, filling their bodies with hollow iciness. Suddenly it struck, howling violently, causing all three of the trespassing boys to shiver and pull their cloaks tighter around themselves.

"Merlin it's cold!" exclaimed one of the boys. He was tall, with jet black hair, pale skin and dark eyes. His face seemed to belong to a marble sculpture, for it was almost perfectly proportioned, except for the small bump on his nose from when he had broken it in a fight years earlier.

"Don't worry," said another, "We'll be warmer when we change later." This boy had mess of black hair that sat chaotically on his head and oval glasses perched haphazardly on his nose.

"Yes," the first boy said, smiling, "We're always warmer when we change. Those animals are lucky to have fur all the time."

"It's getting cold earlier this year," a third boy added quietly, "It's only November and it feels cold enough to snow." The boy was small and plump, his short legs struggling to keep up with the long strides of the taller boys. He had small, beady eyes and uncharacteristic mousy brown hair.

"It's not that cold," the first boy said offhandedly, "Don't exaggerate."

The wind, almost indignant that the boy did not find it cold enough, howled wilder than before, causing the trees to scrape shrilly against each other. The small boy whimpered in fear.

"Come on," the first boy said again, "How many times do we come here and you _still_ are afraid of the forest. It isn't going to bite you."

"Well I… I…" The small boy struggled frantically to come up with something in his defense.

"Come on," the boy with the glasses said with a hint of worry in his voice, "The moon's already out. I don't want to leave him alone for long."

The dark-haired boy nodded and walked quickly behind him. The small boy huffed behind, trying to keep up.

Soon, the boys reached a clearing and gazed in front of them calmly. An enormous gnarled tree with thick bone-like branches stood in front of them. Something by the foot of the tree stirred and suddenly it sprung into violent action, spinning its thick branches in all directions, disrupting the eerie calm of the night. Though it looked as if the vicious tree was unruly enough to knock a horde of giants out cold, the boys did not move or panic in anyway.

"What do you suppose it was that moved?" asked the dark-haired boy.

"Dunno," answered the bespectacled one, "Probably a stupid animal or a leaf in the wind or something."

The boy he was speaking to shrugged. "C'mon Wormtail," he called suddenly, turning to the small boy, "We haven't got all day."

The small boy nodded and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he began to shrink until he was no bigger than a child's shoe and no longer than a pencil. He sprouted fur, a tail, and whiskers, and soon a fat garden rat was left in his place. The other boys just looked at him blandly as if they had seen boys turn into rats everyday of their lives. "He's slow," muttered one of the boys, pushing his glasses up with his finger, "I _never_ have to close my eyes." The other boy laughed and continued to watch the rat in the grass. The rat seemed to squeak at them before scurrying over to the tree and touching its base with a miniscule paw. Suddenly, the tree was frozen in air.

The two boys left in the clearing took this as their cue to move. The rat slid into a hole at the base of the tree, disappearing from view. The boys ran to the tree and stood before the hole, which was big enough for perhaps an animal to fit through, but a person would have to slide through on their stomachs.

"See ya on the other side Prongs," said the dark-haired boy, winking. Suddenly the boy disappeared and a large, black dog stood in his place. The dog barked happily before slipping through the hole.

The boy left behind sighed and lay indignantly on his stomach, inching slowly through the hole. He slid down a muddy slope and landed uncomfortably in a dank, cramped tunnel. He crawled through and the earthy walls seemed to close in around him, reminding him of his slight claustrophobia. "Damn Sirius and Peter," he thought, "It's as easy as hell for them to get through. Couldn't fit through this hole even _if_ I changed." Finally he reached the end of the tunnel and climbed out, finding himself in a small, musty room. The room and the structure it belonged to were decrepit; it seemed as if a strong wind would knock it over in seconds. The wallpaper was torn, hanging of the wall in grimy ribbons. The few pieces of furniture in the room looked as if it would fall apart if anything even touched it and pieces of scattered wood lay on the floor. "Sirius, Peter," the boy called into the room, "Where are you?"

Suddenly a large dog, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, bounded into the room, jumping on the boy and knocking him to the ground.

"Ah, Merlin Sirius! Get off me," the boy exclaimed, his fingers feeling around for his glasses which had unceremoniously been knocked off his face.

The dog climbed off of the boy quickly, almost as if he understood English, and nudged the missing glasses closer to the boy's fumbling hands.

"Thanks Padfoot," he said, placing them carefully on his nose. The boy stood up and in an instant, grew taller and wider, until a lithe stag stood in his place.

The stag nudged towards the hallway and the dog seemed to nod. The rat that had paralyzed the tree scurried into the room quickly, pausing at the two other animals, seeming slightly fatigued. The stag nodded again and then proceeded into the hallway where the rat had come from. The dog followed closely behind. The rat frantically followed them, afraid of being left behind. The animals walked cautiously down the hallway, their heads turning to peer into every room along it as if looking for something. When they reached the end of the hallway, the dog and stag exchanged worried looks and made their way up the staircase, the rat following close behind. The animals checked the few rooms upstairs but still did not find what they were looking for. They wandered back into a room upstairs that appeared as if it had once been a bedroom. The animals stopped in the middle of the room. The dog looked carefully around the room and then nodded, as if to say the coast was clear. The dog disappeared then and the dark-haired boy took his place. The stag and the rat disappeared too, replaced by their respective boys. The rat-boy looked nervously around the room, as if not trusting the dark-haired boy's claim that everything was safe.

"What's happened?" the boy that was once a stag said nervously, "You don't think he's gone out, do you?"

"Dunno," the former dog said cautiously, "But we have to find him before something happens."

"You don't think he's on his way back to Hogwarts, do you?" asked the small boy with agitation.

"I don't think he could get past the tree," muttered the boy with the glasses.

"He might not care about getting hit now," the dark-haired boy mumbled despondently, "He isn't really capable of thinking too clearly."

"Well c'mon then, we have to go look for him."

"Alright, then, let's go."

"Wait!" cried the small boy suddenly, "Shouldn't we check the whole house again, in case we missed him?"

"How could we miss him?" the dark-haired boy snapped critically, "It isn't as if he's hiding."

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt," the other boy said carefully, "Something else might have happened to him. He could be hurt somewhere."

The dark-haired boy sighed and shrugged. "Whatever, but we should hurry. If he really left, he might have hurt someone by now." The boy turned back into a dog, and strode impatiently to the doorway. His friends changed into their animals as well and followed him.

Nervousness and fear hung heavily in the air as they slipped into the upstairs hallway to once again search for what eluded them. They walked slowly, keeping close together, peering carefully into moonlit rooms, afraid that something would jump out at them. When they were through with the top floor, the animals softly slipped down the staircase and onto the ground floor, which, if possible, was every darker than upstairs. Their anxiousness increased rapidly with every room they checked; if it was not here, it would have gotten lose. The end of the hallway snuck up on them and with heightened uneasiness, they looked into the last room.

Nothing.

In the darkness splattered with specks of moonlight, the animals became humans once again.

"Let's hurry," one boy said, straightening himself from being on all fours, "You don't know how long he's been out." As he often did when he was nervous, he ran his hands through his already messed up hair.

"I hope he's alright," stuttered the small boy.

"I hope everyone else is alright," interrupted the dark-haired boy gloomily, "But let's not sit here. We have to find him."

The boys walked quietly out of the room, distantly hearing a shrill howl of the wind outside. Something seemed to flap noisily against the wall right beside them. They turned quickly to see a sliver of moonlight that disappeared as suddenly as they saw it.

"Looks like there's another room in there," whispered the small boy.

"Strange," said the dark-haired boy, "That was always just a wall."

"Maybe Remus is in there," said the other boy hopefully. He began to rush in quickly, but the dark-haired boy held him back.

"Are you mad? If he is in there, it isn't safe for you to go in like that."

"There has to be something wrong with him," the boy responded, not making any indication that he had heard him, "If he's in there he would have heard us when we came by and come out."

"Especially now that we're humans again," the little boy squeaked.

Ignoring him, both boys proceeded to become animals again. Nervously the other boy followed suit. Together they entered the room, not knowing what exactly they would find in the room, but all wishing it would be what they were looking for.


	2. Darkness and a Transformation

One hour earlier a boy sat alone in the encroaching darkness, his back to the open window. The sun was already set. It would only be a few minutes before the moon would rise.

No. Don't think about it, he told himself, it'll only make it worse. Think of something else. He stared at the torn, graying wallpaper, trying to make himself forget that he knew where the tears had come from. He tried not to imagine what had happened to make him rip the wallpaper off the walls.

No. Not him. He didn't rip the wallpaper, it had. Sirius had told him to say it. "It isn't you, Remus," he had said, "So stop calling it that."

It wasn't him. It wasn't him. His mantra was doing little to soothe his fear which increased with the darkness.

No. No. it was going to happen any minute now. He could feel the moon rising without even having to see it. He could sense its slow but definite appearance in the sky. A slow shiver ran down his spine.

Any minute now, any minute.

Stop anticipating it, he told himself, it'll only make it worse.

But he couldn't stop. He dreaded it too much to forget it in an instant. He was afraid of it more than anything else in the world. He hadn't honestly had time in his life to develop a fear of something else. After experiencing this, there was nothing he could reasonably be afraid of.

But he had enough fear in this one moment to last him a lifetime.

And it would happen the same time next month and for the next few days.

The shivers increased.

Any second now, any second.

He heard the wind howl in the distance.

The fear was worse than usual today. He was always petrified, but tonight, if possible, it was worse than ever. Something was going to happen tonight, he could feel it. He couldn't stand to be alone.

"Hurry!" he shouted into the empty room as the darkness surrounded him. "Hurry up, please!" he shouted though he knew who he was shouting too could not hear him. "I can't take it," he screamed, "I can't! Come on! Come quick, I--!"

But the words were strangled in his throat.

It was beginning.

He grew rigid suddenly, and his heart seemed to stop beating for a few seconds. Everything was silent for just those few seconds. He was motionless. He couldn't feel a thing. He didn't notice anything. His mind was blank. It was almost like he dead. But he would regain life in just a moment. His heart would beat again, but it would be changing slowly. He would feel again, but it would be nothing but pain. He would think again, but it wouldn't be rational. Just a moment and it would be over.

And the moment was gone.

He screamed as his heart beat again, pumping faster and faster, so fast it should have killed him. It shifted too, changing shape, forming the heart of something else, something dangerous.

Pain. Everywhere and everything was in pain. Every movement hurt and he wanted nothing more but to be still, but his body shivered and convulsed and was a flurry of motion that he could not control.

Something cracked. Unadulterated pain surged through his body as every bone, every organ, moved and broke, becoming something different.

He felt as if he was on fire. He was growing delirious. He wanted to die; he wanted someone to kill him now so the pain would go away. He didn't care what happened, he wanted it to stop.

His body was not his own; even if he had wanted to move he couldn't. It was as if someone had hijacked his body and would never give it back.

Something shifted inside of him as his body had to rearrange itself to fit this new form. His mind, delirious from pain, was becoming clouded. His last thought, a plea for a merciful death, was lost as the hijacker seized his mind. He would not remember anything until the next morning. When he regained consciousness tomorrow, he would be thankful that he could not remember.

The wolf, shaking itself and slowly moving its sore limbs, stood up carefully. It looked savagely outside the open window, wanting nothing more but to get out. It sniffed the air carefully, hungry.

Something had to be around here. Something had to be here to eat.

It tore down the hallway, its hunger growing stronger with each step. It needed something. It needed to have something in its mouth soon. If it didn't find something…

Something furry darted across its eyes. Quickly, it turned on it and bit in hard.

Food… Food! It thought joyously, tearing the thing in his mouth. It paused for a moment, pain darting sharply.

It had done it again, it had bitten itself!

Enraged, it attacked the wall blindly, biting and scratching and tearing with its teeth, filling its hunger and subduing its anger.

Moonlight filtered in through the gash in the wall.

Empowered by the moon, it continued to attack at nothing, tearing and crumbling the wall, ripping off shreds of wood and plaster. It tried to swallow the pieces but wheezed the dust on the floor. It tasted horrible. The moon glinted again and his hunger grew.

It did not matter. It was something.

The wall was down and almost all of the pieces swallowed. He was hungry still, and craving something real.

Something living.

There was a space behind the wall, another room. It wandered through, hoping something was there.

It stopped.

Its head was swimming suddenly and everything seemed to be spinning. The wolf howled in annoyance as he felt himself slipping into darkness.

In a forest in a pile of scattered leaves, a black dog lay motionless. Its large eyelids drooped open sleepily and its pupils widened they adjusted to the inky darkness. Suddenly, the dog jolted upwards, almost springing to its feet. It humanly looked frantically at his surroundings, its ears back, its haunches tensely up. Something was happening that it did not like.

This was not where it last remembered being.

Something cracked behind him.

He turned around quickly, but nothing was there.

Then suddenly the dog was gone, and there was a boy in his place.

"James!" the boy shouted, "Prongs, where are you?"

In the distance, something seemed to stand up in the darkness. The boy squinted and the shape formed more clearly. A long neck and a head. Antlers.

The boy sighed with relief. "Prongs! Over here!"

The shape in the distance changed into something human. It moved out of sight but the boy could hear its footsteps running toward him. He strained his eyes to see in front of him, but it was too dark. He could barely make out the trees surrounding him.

"Sirius?" a voice called out in the darkness, "Where are you?"

"I'm over here. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. I can't see anything though. Ow!"

"What happened?"

"Whoops. I think I just stepped on Peter. I don't think he knew it was me. He bit me."

"Grab him!"

"I tried, but he ran away and I can't see anything!"

"Never mind then. Come here."

"I can't see you."

"Use your wand then. I'll use mine too." The boy called Sirius muttered something to himself and a small beam of light appeared on the end of a long wooden stick. Even with the small light, he could barely see anything.

"It's not working very well," the voice shouted out to him. Obviously the other boy was having the same trouble.

"It doesn't matter. Keep talking. I'm going to try and find you."

"Alright. I'll try to find you too. With luck we'll find each other."

The boy took a step closer to his friend's voice.

"James?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Where do you think we are?"

"I have no idea. I think something happened when we—Ow!"

Sirius fell backwards suddenly, and there was a sound very nearby of someone falling in the same way.

"James?" Sirius reached forward and his fingers brushed up against a piece of cloth that felt very much like it belonged to a sweater. Hands closed around his fingers suddenly but Sirius did not jump back.

"Oh, there you are Sirius," said the voice who owned the hands. He stood up and pulled Sirius up to his feet. "Sorry about bumping into you like that."

"No problem Prongs."

"Where's Peter?"

"I don't know but I really hope he still isn't a rat. Do you know how hard it's going to be to find a rat in a forest in this darkness?"

"Speaking of which, where the bloody hell are we?"

"Beats me, Prongs, I already asked you the same question."

"Well we're obviously not in the shack anymore, but I don't know why we would—"

"Did you feel faint and dizzy when you walked into that room too?" asked Sirius suddenly.

"What? Oh. Yeah, I did."

"Well I guess something about that room made us pass out. It probably was hidden or something and had some sort of guard on it."

"Why would that room have a guard on it?"

"I dunno. Why else would we pass out?"

"I don't know but I highly doubt Dumbledore would stick Remus in a place with a guarded room."

"Well it obviously was a hidden room, because I have never seen it before. He probably didn't imagine Remus could find his way in it."

"Okay, whatever. I still don't really believe you, but I'll go along with it."

Sirius rolled his eyes in the darkness, though his friend could not see him. "Well considering we passed out, it must have been because of some sort of enchantment on that room, and then someone might have moved us into the forest."

"Who would have moved us Padfoot? We're…at least I, am a little to big too move. And who else would be there besides us that could move us?"

"Merlin, I don't know! I was just trying to make some sense of something!"

"Nice try Padfoot," the boy said chuckling, "But it didn't work."

"Well whatever. We still have no clue where we are, how we got here, or why both of us passed out in that room."

"And we need to find Peter."

"James, do you know how hard it will be to find him?"

"We have to try," James said, "We can't just leave him out here."

"You know Moony's probably here too. Did you ever think of that?"

"The moon isn't out at all here," James said suddenly, "There's no moon at all!"

Sirius looked up at the sky, silent for a few seconds in shock.

"Do you think we've been out for a few days?" he asked quietly.

"It would have to be more like four, since full moons last for a while."

"Do you think it's possible?"

"What?"

"That we've been out that long?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem likely. But then nothing else makes any sense."

"James! Sirius!" called a voice shakily from a long way away, "Where are you?"

"We're over here Peter!" James called, "Follow my voice!"

"What? What's going on? Why is it so dark?"

"Because it's night, you idiot," Sirius shouted, "Why do you think?"

Several seconds later the boy called Peter stumbled out of the darkness into the meager light of James's and Sirius's wands. Peter pulled out his own wand and a beam of light shined out of it, combining with the others. It was easier to see now.

"Right. So now we have to find Moony," James said decisively.

"How will we do that? We can barely see."

"H-he's here?" Peter stuttered nervously, "How do you know?"

"I don't know if he's here," James said irritably, "But he might be and we still don't know where he is."

"If we've been out for a few days then maybe he's back at the castle."

"If we've been out for a few days he wouldn't have left us there."

"Unless he was loose when we couldn't find him," Sirius said darkly, "And they caught him."

"No!" James shouted, his eyes wide, "No! That couldn't have happened! He's still out there! We have to find him!"

"You're forgetting," Sirius said calmly, draping his hand around his friend, "That we might not even be near the castle anymore. We might not be anywhere near Remus. He might still be in the shack, or in the Forest somewhere."

"He'd still be out loose," James said quietly, "And if we aren't there we can't help him and…and…who knows what is happening…"


	3. I Have A Feeling We're Not In Hogwarts

The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the cold. He body seemed to convulse into shivers, every bone clattering against the next, his teeth snapping together almost painfully. It was over, he told himself, he would open his eyes and everything would be over. His friends would be standing there smiling at him, ready to remind him of their night of fun that he never could remember.

But when he opened his eyes, he saw darkness.

It didn't make sense, his brain thought groggily, it should be morning by now.

Suddenly his brain seemed to flood and nausea filled his body. He bolted upright, but the movement made him feel worse. He shivered again, but not from the cold. He was going to be ill…

He retched suddenly, hating the feeling of it but hoping it would make his nausea go away. His throat burned and he felt like there was something sharp lodged in his tongue.

He was growing faint again.

He sighed and laid back down on the cool grass, the cold suddenly inviting to him. His eyelids grew heavy though his brain was begging to be alert.

Something was wrong. It was night, but he was fine. His friends were nowhere to be found.

But he couldn't think of that, he had to sleep. He was too ill to think. He was too weak to move.

Another wave of nausea passed over him and he groaned. He turned over and threw up again.

What happened last night, he asked himself as he turned over to sleep, what did I do?

"Did you hear that?" Sirius said suddenly, his eyes wide, suddenly alert.

"No," James mumbled, "What should I have heard?"

"There's something over there," Sirius said, pointing into the darkness.

"How do you know?"

"I can hear it."

"Do you think it's Moony?"

Sirius shrugged. "Let's go see it. Do you think I can tell from here?"

James nodded. "Do you think we should be animals now, just in case?"

"Dunno. I guess it couldn't hurt."

In an instant, the boys were animals again, James and Sirius leaping through the brush and Peter scurrying as fast as he could behind.

Sirius paused in his running for a moment, his ears pricked up. He could hear it better now, whatever it was. He motioned for the others to follow him and slid forward into the darkness. He was sure it was right here. Its scent was drifting in the air; it was something familiar, something he knew very well but he couldn't quite place it… It wouldn't be too long until he could…

See it. He saw it, lying on the grass, moaning quietly to itself, eyes closed. He knew was it was at once.

"It's Moony!" Sirius called, human again. "Something's wrong. C'mon, quick!"

James ran forward in the darkness, stumbling in his anxiousness. His new two legs were a lot less graceful than four.

But when he got there, his face paled.

Something was definitely wrong with their friend.

He lay there moaning, crumpled into a small ball, his face white. He was shivering violently, and James was almost entirely sure there was a pool of vomit not too far from him. In short, he looked like hell, worse than he normally did after his long nights.

"Shit," Sirius mumbled, "What the hell happened to him?"

"C'mon," James said gravely, bending over his ill friend, "We got to get him warm, he's freezing."

Sirius nodded. "How are we going to do that? Build a fire?" He pulled out his wand and gathered a pile of leaves.

"Yeah, you do that," came James's muffled voice.

"What are you—" Sirius began, turning around.

"Keeping Moony warm," James said, holding up the sweater that he had been wearing. "I figured he needs it more than I do."

"Right," Sirius said nodding, removing his sweater as well, "He does."

The air was frigid, worse than it had been earlier when they were walking through the forest, and both boys felt the air's icy hands grabbing at them, making their breathing shallow and making it painful to move. They did not mention the cold to each other as the worked to keep their injured friend warm.

"James! Sirius!" Peter stumbled towards his friends, panting. "What's going—" He stopped and his eyes grew wide as he spied the ill figure lying on the ground. "Merlin," he stuttered, "What happened to him?"

"We don't know," Sirius said, handing his sweater to James, "We're just trying to get him warm."

James bent by his friend and surrounded him with the two sweaters before going to help Sirius with the fire.

Peter nodded dumbly but did not move. "D-do you think he needs another sweater?"

"Couldn't hurt," James remarked.

Peter nodded slowly, contemplating whether he should give Remus his sweater too. It was cold, and he didn't want to give it up but he had to. Sirius and James had already done it, and if he didn't do it they might get angry at him. He slowly removed his sweater, yelping as the cold touched him. He shivered.

"Wimp," Sirius muttered darkly, trying to ignore the frost that seemed to cover his entire body. He began to stir the leaves burning under the fire.

"What now?" James asked, sitting on the other side of the fire, watching Remus.

"Wait for him to wake up I guess," Sirius said, sitting beside James, "There's nothing more we can really do."

Peter waddled over to the fire and sat near his friends. He shivered and leaned closer to the fire for warmth.

"Do you think it's safe to stay here?" James asked worriedly, "I mean, we're not really entirely sure where we are."

"If we're in the forest it might not be all that safe, but I don't think it would be good to move him."

"Merlin, I hope he's alright. I've never seen him like this before."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Sirius said, though he was not entirely sure, "Moony's stronger than he looks."

James nodded slowly and proceeded to nervously mess up his hair.

Sirius watched him and was about to open his mouth to say something comforting when Remus's body emitted a low moan.

The boys rushed towards him frantically.

"Moony? Are you alright?" James asked anxiously.

Remus stirred and opened his eyes slowly. A small smile crept across his face as he realized that his friends were standing around him. "I'm alright, I think. Just a little nauseous," he croaked, sitting up, "And my throat feels like powder." He coughed violently.

"You sure?" Sirius asked worriedly, "You look like hell."

"Worse than usual I'm assuming," Remus said jokingly.

"You seem alright," James said cautiously, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Nope, not a thing. I wish I did though, something strange is going on."

"What makes you think so Moony?" Sirius asked.

"It's night and I'm not supposed to be like this now." Remus said shortly.

"Me and James think something weird is going on too," Sirius said quickly, "We've been trying to figure out where we are."

"We were passed out," James explained, "We know that much."

"And the last place we remember being," Sirius interrupted, "Was this room in the shack that we've never seen before."

"Then we woke up, and we were here."

"The moon was gone, so if we are still in Hogwarts we had to have been out for a few days."

"But of course, there's the possibility that we aren't in Hogwarts anymore at all…"

"Then that's what we have to do," Remus said decisively, "We have to see if we are still at Hogwarts."

Sirius nodded. "We can see the castle if we walk out of the forest."

"Then what are we waiting for," James announced with determination, "Let's get out of this forest."

Remus stood up carefully, his body still sore. Sirius extended a hand to help him up.

"Put my sweater on," Sirius told him, "It's really cold and you don't feel well."

"But then you'll be cold, Padfoot," Remus said, though he really needed the sweater, considering he had barely any clothes on his from when he had changed.

"It's okay," Sirius said smiling, "I'll be fine." With those words the boy was gone and a large dog was in his place. It barked happily before bounding through the darkness in the woods.

"Take your sweater James," Remus said, laughing at Sirius leaping in this distance. "I don't need two sweaters."

"You sure Moony?" James asked, "You don't look too good."

"Take it. I'm not that sick and you look like you need it."

James took it gratefully, sliding the sweater over his head. "Now lets hurry up and catch up to Sirius before he leaves us all behind."

Remus tossed the remaining sweater to Peter, who looked more than overjoyed to have it back.

Smiling, the three boys rushed to follow Sirius, who ran ahead of them, barking cheerfully. They almost forgot what they were running too, almost forgot the mystery that lay over them at the end of the forest. They walked through the forest all night, but they did not grow tired. They walked through the forest longer than they had ever walked in the woods before, but they did not notice. They were enjoying themselves and could not notice anything else but the games they played and the joy of each other's company.

But the end of the woods grew near, and the mystery approached them. Sirius, still a dog, rushed ahead of them, too engrossed in a game of tag to notice he had left the woods. James rushed behind him, laughing, his face red from running. Remus and Peter were close behind. Sirius barked, taunting them to catch him, but James did not move. He stared upwards, open-mouthed.

"What's up, Prongs?" Sirius asked, rushing to meet him on two legs.

"I have a feeling we're not in Hogwarts anymore…"


	4. Kindness of Strangers

The four boys stood openmouthed in the clearing, staring up at the early dawn sky. There, where the majestic castle should have been standing, was nothing but a cerulean sky dotted with faint stars.

"Maybe we got out of the forest on the wrong side," Sirius said quickly.

"Yes," Remus said hopefully, "Maybe it's right behind us."

The boys turned around, frantically gazing behind them where, once again, there was only the sky.

"W-what are we going t-to do?" Peter stammered, "Are we lost?"

No one answered. They were all frozen, paralyzed in disbelief and shock, their minds all avoiding the question which presented itself urgently now. Each of the boys was slowly calculating the loss of something very important, the loss of not only a school but of a million other things. No more would they be able to spend their weekends down by the lake, their nights in the forest, or their afternoons by the Quidditch pitch. There would be no more Library, no more common room, and no more Great Hall. Every teacher was gone, as well as every student that had gone to school with them and would go there in the future. It was unbelievable. It couldn't be gone.

"Is it…really…?" James began.

"It…it might not be. We might just be…somewhere else," Remus said slowly, forcing his brain to work rationally after his shock.

"Yeah, we're somewhere else," Sirius announced, "That has to be it."

"Then what should we do?" James asked, "How'll we get back?"

"I guess we should figure out where we are," Remus said, "Though how we are going to do that I have no idea."

"What? What's going on?" Peter cried. "Where…where did the castle go?"

"It didn't _go_ anywhere," James said irritably, "We're just somewhere else."

"But how did we…?" Peter began.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Sirius said shortly.

Peter nodded slowly, trying to understand what was going on but he was unable to. His attempts to make sense of what was going on kept pushing him deeper into confusion. The others, after recovering from their shock, thought of the problem as well but were having better luck with it than Peter.

"We have to figure out where we are," Remus said slowly, "Then we could figure out what happened."

"There's a road over there," James pointed out. The light of the approaching sun revealed things that the boys had not previously seen.

"Let's follow it. We might find a town… or some people or something. We could get an idea of where we are from there."

Silently, Remus nodded and James and Sirius began to walk towards the road. Peter, whimpering in confusion, followed behind James. Remus trailed behind them.

Music drifted lazily out of Rosalind Mc Kay's car radio. The song was soft and instrumental, encouraging her contemplative and slightly melancholy mood. She was driving home from her son's house and was very sorry that she had to leave his house, warm with his company, and journey back to her own, empty house. Her house was much too big for her to live in on her own, but she refused to move. Her four sons had grown up in that house, and she did not want to disturb it. She missed her sons, the youngest of whom had moved out of the house several years earlier. She loved them dearly and wished for them to stay with her forever. She hated for them to leave but knew that she could not rightly make them stay forever. She had kept her sons' rooms exactly the way they had left them, and did not throw out any of their old things, though she definitely could have used the extra space that throwing them out would bring. She would not disturb the memory of them once living with her and sharing her life. Leaving their things there made her feel both content and lonely. Knowing that their things were safely in their places reminded her of the way things used to be, which filled her with happy memories, but they also made her feel alone. Yet she could not part with them. Driving along the highway, heading for her home, her mind was only focused on when she would visit one of her sons again and when they would all come back to their old house to visit her.

In her musings, she almost did not see the four boys walking along the side of the road. They were all young, still teenagers, and they were all alone. How could any decent mother let her son wander around the side of a highway, Rosalind thought critically. Where were they going? Where did they come from? Did they have no one who cared enough about them to drive them to wherever they needed to go? It was quite frigid outside, and they had no coats. One of them didn't even have a sweater on. Her motherly conscience begged her to pull over and give the boys a ride. After only half a moment of contemplation on the subject, she smoothly pulled over beside them.

"Would you like a ride to where you are headed?" Rosalind said hopefully. She saw the boys better now and took a moment to judge whether they were being treated well enough or not. They didn't look as if they were being starved; one of them actually appeared to be overfed. Rosalind, searching through her brain for every type of maltreatment she could think of, found nothing particularly horrible about the way the boys appeared to be treated, though one of the boys looked a little sickly and was wearing torn clothes and another, as she had noticed before, had no sweater on.

The boys looked up after hearing her question and exchanged meaningful glances with each other as if deciding whether to take her up on her offer.

"Yes, thank you very much for offering," said the slightly ill-looking boy with light brown hair.

"No problem at all," Rosalind responded brightly.

Tentatively, almost as if he was afraid he would scare her away, the brown-haired boy opened the door to her car. He and his companions slid in quickly and the final boy, the over-fed looking one, closed the door lightly.

Rosalind pulled away from the side of the highway and continued her drive back into town.

"Where are you boys headed?" she asked.

"Uh… No where in particular," a boy with incredibly messy hair and glasses said, "Just into the nearest town."

"By the way," added another boy with clear grey eyes and dark hair, "What is the name of the town?"

Rosalind was rather taken aback that the boys were walking to a town that they did not know the name of, but told them anyway. Her motherly heart filled even more with concern for their safety.

"How old are all of you?" she asked.

"Sixteen," answered the brown-haired boy politely.

"Do your mother's know where you are?" She assumed they were not brothers; they didn't look like they were and they all were the same age.

"Uhh… Yeah. They do," said one of the boys slowly.

"And they didn't offer to give you a ride?"

"They think it's uh… good exercise," said another, but Rosalind was not convinced.

By now they had reached town, which was a very short drive from where the boys had been but would have been a very long walk if Rosalind had not picked them up.

"Here you are boys," she said genially, pulling up to the curb in front of a quaint bookstore.

"Once again, thank you very much," the brown-haired boy said, before opening the door gingerly and sliding out.

"No problem boys, none at all," she replied as they filed out of her car.

The boys walked over to the sidewalk and were walking away from the car. Rosalind watched them go through her rear-view mirror, her motherly conscience still not satisfied. But there was nothing else she could do to help them. She did not even know who they were and where they had come from, but yet she was determined to help them and they seemed as if they needed help.

"Wait!" she called out of her car suddenly.

The boys turned around, slightly shocked that she was still there.

"If you ever need anything," she said, getting out of the car to meet them, "Feel free to call me." She scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to them.

"Thanks," one of the boys said, taking the paper.

"You don't have to be thankful," Rosalind said simply before she walked back to her car and drove away, her mind still on the safety of the four roadside boys.


	5. Discovery Creates A New Mystery

**A/N: Thanks for everyone who read this and I especially thank Ace Ryn Knight and LadyNightSky for their reviews. The following chapter I don't think is very interesting but I needed to write it to continue the plot. I also didn't really write it that well I think, but there wasn't really much I could do with it. Anyway, I suppose the readers would be the more accurate judge of that. Enjoy!**

"Wow," Sirius said slowly, "I didn't expect that to happen."

"I guess there's always someone out there who feels the need to be kind for no reason," Remus said, "That was very nice of her."

"I'm glad she came along," added James, "I could barely walk two more feet. We've been walking all morning and I didn't get to sleep at all last night." He yawned emphatically.

"There are some benches over there," Peter said, "We could sit there for a while."

"What would be really nice," Sirius said sleepily, "Is a bed." But he and the others made their way to the benches gratefully.

"What now?" Remus said realistically once they had sat down, "We're in town, and we know what it's called, but that doesn't help us at all."

"I dunno," James said, yawning, "If there's a map then maybe we could see where we are better."

"Are we even in the same country?" Sirius mentioned, "I mean who knows where we ended up!"

"And how you suppose we can figure that out?" James said snidely," I mean, if we go up to someone and ask what country we're in, they'll think we're mad or something. Who would go into a different country and not know it?"

"Once again a map would be helpful," Remus said, "Or a newspaper."

"Where'll we get that from?"

Remus's eyes subconsciously trailed back to where the woman had dropped them off minutes before. His eyes read the sign on a store nearby, and a smile spread across his face. "A bookstore."

"Ah, Moony, a bookstore?" Sirius said indignantly, "Come on, do you have to go to books wherever you go?"

"It makes sense though," James told him, "We can probably find a map or a newspaper in there."

Sirius sighed. "Alright, let's go. We need to hurry and figure out where we are and get out. No stopping to read muggle books, okay Moony?"

Remus laughed. "Don't worry, I'll control myself."

The boys grudgingly got off the bench and trudged towards the bookstore.

"Wait!" Sirius called as they all had reached the door. "I can't go in."

"Why not?"

"I have no shirt on at all," Sirius said, "The sign says I have to to go in." He pointed lazily at the door.

"Wormtail, give Padfoot your jumper," James said carelessly.

"What? Why?"

"You have one of those grubby undershirts on so if you took your jumper off they'll still let you in."

Peter regretfully removed his sweater, cringing in the cold air. Sirius slipped it over his head. After this was through, the boys walked into the store.

It was a small, quaint bookstore but it was quite crowded. Remus imagined that in a small town like this, this store was probably the only one of its kind. Though secretly he wondered what it was that muggles read, Sirius did have a point. They had an urgent problem, and there was little time to waste on anything else.

"Whoa… This has to be wrong."

Remus was broken out of his thoughts by James, who stood holding a newspaper he had found with a very confused look on his face.

"What? The date's right. We were in forest on the 21st, and now it's morning, so it should be the 22nd." Sirius peered over his friends shoulder.

Remus leaned over and read the date on the top of the newspaper. It read November 22, 2006. It had to be wrong. It had to be. They couldn't have possibly gone into the future…

"Did you read the year, Padfoot?" James said, with a hint of hysteria in his voice.

"No…" Sirius whispered in disbelief after he paused to read it, "There has to be something wrong with this newspaper…"

"Excuse me sir," came the voice of Peter, who the boys in their shock had forgotten about, "But what is the year?"

"2006," answered the man, staring at Peter as if he had sprouted another head.

"Why'd you do that for?" Sirius asked open-mouthed, "He must think you're mad!"

"Doesn't matter," Remus remarked, "Now there can be no doubt about the year."

"2006…" James said slowly, "Wow. Did we really travel into the future?"

"Appears so," said Remus.

"We still need to figure out where we are," Sirius mentioned, "2006 isn't that far into the future that Hogwarts would be gone."

"Then let's go look for maps," James announced decisively.

The boys nodded at each other and wandered around the store, never wandering too far from each other.

James found that his mind was not entirely on the search. He was distracted, both by the rather shocking fact that they were in the future and by the strange feeling of emptiness he had in his stomach, which seemed to increase with his every step.

"If we're in the future," Remus thought, as he scanned the sections for anything to do with maps, "That would explain why there was no moon. The cycles would be different here… Which would mean that the next full moon could be tomorrow and I'd have no clue… I need to find out, quick before tonight comes and I might hurt someone…" He also began to scan the sections for calendars.

"This is so cool," Sirius thought, as he distractedly looked for maps. He tugged the sweater he borrowed from Peter down, as it was too short for him. "I am in the future. When we find out where we are and try and find Hogwarts, I might be able to find where my future-self is. That would be so cool, meeting yourself in the future. I wonder what I am doing now. I bet it's something cool." He looked up from a bookshelf and watched a tall blonde girl walk by a nearby bookshelf.

"Hey, Prongs, look," he whispered, gesturing James over, "The girls are even better in 2006."

James smiled. "We should ask her where the maps are."

"Screw the maps, we could just talk to her. I'm sure we've still got it with girls even in the future."

"We're supposed to be focused on looking for maps." Remus sighed.

"We're focused, Moony. It's just what you focus on is different from what we like to."

"I think searching for maps is a little more urgent."

"Shh. It's not going to take that long. It can wait." Sirius and James continued to stare at the girl.

"Hey guys, the kid on this cover looks just like James!"

"Really? Let me see!" Sirius's attention left the girl. He turned and grabbed the book from Peter.

"Wow Prongs, look! He looks just like you!"

"No he doesn't. I'm much better looking. Plus, his eyes are the wrong color and he has an ugly scratch on his head."

"That doesn't look like a map to me," Remus said shortly.

"I didn't say exactly like you. Sure there are some differences and the picture is weird, but the resemblance is quite noticeable."

"He has your last name too!" Peter squealed with delight.

"He's playing Quidditch," Sirius remarked. "A wizard must have written this book."

"Whoever it is will be in big trouble if any wizards find out. They're selling this in a Muggle bookstore. That's bound to break a few laws."

"A wizard wrote it?" Remus said, suddenly interested. If they could figure out where the author was then maybe he or she could help them get back to Hogwarts or the wizard world.

"I assume so, considering he's playing Quidditch."

"Let me see," Remus said, taking the book from Sirius. He began to read the back of the book frantically.

"Now you're interested. Tired of looking for stupid maps?"

"What a strange book. I wonder if it's popular," Remus thought aloud, ignoring Sirius.

"You don't know what that book is?" remarked a loud voice nearby. The boys looked up and saw a girl about their age skimming the shelves nearby. "I just walked by now," she said apologetically, scanning their shocked faces. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. Honestly, all I heard was you saying it was a strange book."

"Why would we know what that book is?" Sirius asked indignantly.

The girl laughed and threw her dark hair over her shoulder. "The Harry Potter series is probably the most popular series in the world," she said emphatically. "Everyone's heard of it."

"Well we haven't," said James.

The girl looked at them as if they were from another planet. "Where have you guys been? They're _huge._ There've sold millions if not billions of copies sold. There are movies about them, fan clubs about them. Hell, even clothes stores sell T-shirts of it!"

"It's that big?"

"Hell yeah. They're huge. Plus, they're pretty damn awesome. I love those books with a passion.

"What are they about?"

The girl snorted. "I'm not giving it away. The plot's too involving anyway for me to explain it to you. If you wanna know so badly, read them. I'd hurry if I were you too, because the last book is going to be out in the summer."

"Uh…Thank you."

"No problem," she said offhandedly, "Any time. Hope you guys like the books, bye!" She waved as she left, two books tucked under her arms.

"How weird," Peter commented, "If those books are so popular, the Muggles must know everything."

Remus continued to look at each of the books in the series which were lined in a row on the bookshelf. "This might give us some information," Remus said, not really paying much attention. "If the author is a wizard or something, we might be able to find whoever it is and they can help us get back home."

"Or not," Sirius said.

"It'll still be cool," James said, "To see what the Muggles know."

"Look at this," Remus said stiff with shock, pausing on one of the pages of the books, "Our nicknames."

According to the table of contents, chapter eighteen of one of the books was titled Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

"How the hell did that happen?" James said incredulously. "No one knows about that, and these are just books someone wrote for the Muggles."

"Maybe in the future we know the author," Sirius supplied, "And we told her."

"I wanna know what it says about us!" Peter said excitedly. "Let's get them!"

"We have no money," Remus said slowly, "At least not Muggle money, but I think we should get it too."

"Well besides the books," James said, "We have another, more important mystery to solve: Where are we?"

"And another more urgent one," Sirius added, "We need a place to stay, and food."

"Oh," Remus said quietly, "I need a calendar." He just remembered his urgent need for one.

"What? Why?"

"The full moons would be different in the future," he whispered, "And it would be good to figure out when they were."

"We could just find one," James said, "And not buy it. We could see when the next one is and work it from there."

"Okay, let's find a calendar," Sirius agreed, "Then after that we're out of here to think of a place to stay."

"What about the map?" Peter asked, "Don't we need to find out where we are?"

Remus sighed. "Yeah, I guess we have to do that too."

"Alright," Sirius noted, "We're looking for a calendar and a map."

"Good, now focus. All of you," Remus said sternly, "We're in a strange new time and we have a lot to do."

"Alright, alright Moony, jeez," James said lazily, "We get it. We'll focus."

"Though," Sirius said "It would be a whole lot easier if I wasn't so damn tired."

Yawning, all of the boys began to search for a calendar and a map, though they all wished they were asleep in the warm, comforting four-poster beds of Hogwarts.


	6. Dreams

**A/N: Thanks again to all those who read and those who reviewed. LadyNightSky, Ace Ryn Knight, PotterPhan21**

**And to answer LadyNightSky's question, yes, they are going to read all of the books, but I'll only go into detail their reactions reading the ones that would give them information about themselves like the first, third and fifth books. The others they'll read but I won't go too much into them.**

**Okay Thank Yous and Q and A over. Now enjoy!**

Sirius Black discovered that dogs dream in black and white. It was a very strange sensation for him to be dreaming the way dogs did but to be dreaming about human things. His dream, besides that, was nothing particularly special or troubling.

He was back in Hogwarts with the sensation of having completed a very long journey. He wasn't sure if his friends were there with him and he found himself unable to look to see if they were, and strangely not caring if they were. The halls of the school were crowded with students scuffling about chaotically while changing classes, and there was a tumult of disorganized sound as they all carried on conversations amongst themselves, the myriad of voices mixing to sound like an alien language. He walked casually down the hallway, preparing to slip by the crowds of students, when he was spotted.

A girl with long hair that fell gracefully in ringlets and almond-shaped eyes that he had a strong feeling were amber, looked up and recognized him, her attractive face full of excited shock. "Sirius is back!" she shrieked, and the noise in the hall paused for half a second as everyone looked up at him, open-mouthed. Then they burst into excited shouts, all of the voices saying excited words welcoming him back. A group of girls smiling abashedly gathered around him, their eyes scanning him, grateful that he had returned.

"Where were you?" cooed one of the girls who then flipped her luminous black hair over her shoulder.

"You'll never believe me," he said smiling, enjoying every minute of the attention he was being given by the girls.

"Oh, come on," said another, "We'll believe you." She fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"If you must know," he said emphatically, his face covered with a coy grin, "I was in the future."

The girls gasped collectively. "The future!" exclaimed one, "Oh, how scary!"

"How _ever_ did you manage?" asked the girl who had batted her eyelashes, "I would have _died_!"

He shrugged. "It wasn't frightening at all. I met my future self and he was even cooler than I was now," he said, "If you can believe it."

"Oh Sirius!" said one girl, leaning against him, "Cooler than now?"

"Yes," he responded. He tried to reach out and put his arm around her, but he found that he couldn't move his arm.

"How were you cooler?" asked the girl with the dark hair critically, "What did you do?"

"Well," he said smugly, "If you _must_ know…" He then broke into a long explanation of the cool things his future self had done, or at least what he dreamed his future self had done. The girls listened with graceful adoration to his list of dream accomplishments and fawned over him continuously.

The black dog's legs twitched happily as it sleep soundly on the cement which only a dog would find comfortable, under the park bench.

Remus Lupin managed to fall asleep despite the fact that he was sitting up rigidly on the extremely uncomfortable park bench and his shoulder was being painfully crushed by the heavy sleeping head of one James Potter. Through his uncomfortable sleep, he remarkably managed to dream.

He was standing in front of a familiar stone gargoyle, holding an ancient book whose leather-bound cover was worn and slowly seeming to deteriorate. Though the book was extremely large, it did not seem heavy to him and was in fact, very easy to carry. He did not linger on the peculiarity of the weight of the book, but immediately began to examine the gargoyle and determine where he had seen it before. He glanced around; seeming to suddenly realize that there was a winding hallway around him. He understood immediately when he recognized the hallway, where he was and racked his brain fruitlessly for the password to open the statue in front of him. He was barely able to think; his brain felt as if it had turned into slush, which annoyed him greatly. He tapped the statue impatiently which his foot and he stood back amazedly as it slowly opened to reveal a winding staircase. He knew where it would lead.

He did not remember taking all of the stairs but he found himself, nonetheless, in the office of Albus Dumbledore. The room, which was normally cluttered with objects of a magical nature, now strangely seemed to be a blur. The only thing that seemed to be in perfect focus was the aged man and the desk he sat behind.

"Hello Remus," the man said plainly, looking up at him from behind his half-moon glasses, "What brings you to my office?"

Honestly, he did not know why he was here, but he knew that he had some sort of question to ask him, though he could not remember what it was.

"I expect you would like some advice while in your current predicament."

He nodded, suddenly realizing his question.

"You'll find," Dumbledore continued, looking over his desk at the book lying on Remus's lap, "That reading will do little to solve your problems. In fact, I believe it will cause entirely new ones that are much more difficult to solve."

Remus looked back down at the book and found it was not the ancient tome he remembered having while he was in front of the gargoyle, but it was now the paperback he had examined at the bookstore. He change was unremarkable to him.

"Finding the answers to your predicament will prove very difficult. You are right to believe it must be done, but do not worry if the answers come slowly. If they come at all, they will come in time. And never believe that you are searching alone. Your friends may not seem to be focused on finding answers, but they will prove to be more useful than you believe. Not all of them are reacting to this new information in the same way that you are. They all have different thoughts as to what this means to them." Dumbledore seemed to be finished with what he needed to tell Remus, for he looked down at his desk and began to scribble something on a piece of parchment, no longer seeming to notice that Remus was there.

"Do you know we are gone?" Remus had been silent but attentive through out this, but had decided now to ask the pressing question that was on his mind. Dumbledore did not look up though, and continued scribbling as if he had not heard anything. Suddenly Remus's hands brushed against the book, which was once again withered and ancient, and the room and Dumbledore seemed to whirl away. He was carried away into darkness, his pressing question not answered.

Peter Pettigrew was running a race. He was not sure if he was a rat or a boy, but he was running away from something through a maze of trees that seemed to stretch forever. He wanted to leave. He wanted to go home, but he could not find his way. The tree-maze seemed to go on forever and every turn he took seemed to send him deeper and deeper into its depths, confusing him more and more. He found a newspaper scattered on the floor and picked it up. The date across the top confused him, and then the maze changed shape, the path ahead of him splitting in two directions. He took a step sheepishly forward, whimpering, and wondering how he would get out of the ungodly maze of trees that got increasingly difficult no matter what he did. A map would help him, he decided, a map would take away the confusion and tell him where he was. He ran blindly through the paths in the trees, not knowing where he was going, searching only for the map. Without even trying, he picked up a book and was about to examine it when it was pulled out of his hands. He looked around frantically for where it had gone, but could not find it. He gave up and took several moments to remember what else he had been looking for. A map. That's right, a map. He scrambled about to find it and tripped in the encroaching darkness. He stood up, wiping the dirt from his face, trying to calm his manic heart when he kicked something in the darkness. Fumbling for it, he held it in his hands and examined it. A map! Quickly he tore it open, his trembling hands having difficultly opening it properly. In the fading light, he stared at the map blankly, not knowing exactly how to read it. A voice he knew somehow told him all he needed to know. There was nothing he knew on the map. He still did not know where he was. The maze shifted again and the paths in front of him multiplied rapidly. Too quickly were the paths forming in front of him and too many new ways to go showed themselves that he felt dizzy, falling to his feet on the ground. Where were his friends? He thought frantically, they would know what was happening. But now even they didn't know, he thought fearfully. What was going on that they didn't even know what was happening? How was he to get out of this maze and find his way home?

As a rat in a linty pocket, he fidgeted in anxiousness, sleeping, but so strongly affected by his dream that he shivered uncontrollably, more afraid than he ever had been.

James Potter shifted needlessly in his sleep, trying to rid himself of the discomfort that resulted from lying on a thin shoulder. Half-asleep, he groaned, wanting nothing more than to fall into a deeper sleep. Craning his neck, he finally found himself a slightly more comfortable position on his friend's shoulder, which allowed him to fall into a fitful sleep. During this labored sleep, he found himself dreaming wearily, the sort of half-awake dreams that were especially impressionable on the one who dreamt them.

He was back in the darkened forest where they all had awoken, but now he could see well enough into the distance. There was nothing standing above the trees, no majestic castle cutting through the sky. His heart skipped a beat and he began to run frantically. He ran towards the edge of the forest, trying to reach where the castle should have stood, but then he found himself in a bookstore which was vaguely familiar to him. The store was filled almost to its capacity of people, but he could not see the crowds clearly; they were all multi-colored blurs which sped by recklessly before he could even identify that they were human.

But suddenly, standing in the middle of the fast-moving crowd was a girl he had met before. He remembered her standing in this exact place in the bookstore, but he did not remember why he should know her or what she was doing there.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked him, "You don't belong here."

How did she know that he came from the past? How did she know that he was a wizard?

"You don't know what these are," she continued, holding up a book. He squinted but he could not read the cover. "Everyone knows what these are. You must be from somewhere else."

He opened his mouth to protest but she and the bookstore was gone. He was in the park, sitting on a bench next to a sleeping Remus with a floating newspaper charmed to cover their faces. Sirius slept as a dog on the floor and he distantly remembered that Peter was sleeping in his pocket. He stood up slowly, being careful not to disturb him.

"Do your mothers' know where you are?"

He turned around and the woman who had driven them here stood in the park, watching him carefully, seeming to float in the air like a ghost. He gasped, almost thinking she was one, but then realized that she was slightly more solid than a ghost would be.

"Do your mothers' know where you are?"

He opened his mouth to answer her but found he couldn't talk.

"Will you ever get back to tell them?"

He tried to speak again but he found that his throat had swollen shut. She drifted towards him and his heart beat wildly, afraid of her for a reason he could not quite understand.

"You didn't know what the town was called," she said, drifting closer and closer to him. He couldn't move out of her way. "You don't belong here." Closer. Closer. He was terrified, he wanted to move, he wanted to scream. But he couldn't.

"You don't belong here and you won't get back."

Closer. Closer.

"You don't fit here. You can't go there."

He held his breath as she stood right in front of him, inches from his nose. She was a ghost, he could see right through her but yet he could see nothing but her.

"Hogwarts is gone and you don't belong here."

A spectral hand reached out to touch him.

His eyes flew open but he found he couldn't scream.


End file.
